On those rare occasions when I’m the only one at home for dinner, I like to play around in the kitchen and come up with something that’s a little wacky. It’s the perfect time to experiment with new ideas and recipes.
Recently my wife was given a 3 lb. bag of frozen, breaded alligator pieces by a co-worker. While my wife enjoys a wide variety of foods, seafood and fish aren’t normally her cup of tea, but I was happy to try them out.
I have found several opportunities to prepare the alligator, during the last few months, mainly serving it as a snack while watching television, or munching on it between meals.
When fried, the alligator bites are a bit like popcorn shrimp. They can be served with tartar sauce, ranch dressing, or cocktail sauce.
Tastes like chicken!
…well, not exactly. Alligator has a mild flavor, similar to chicken, with a hint of fishy flavor. The main difference between alligator and chicken is that alligator is a little chewier, similar to calamari.
In my opinion, it’s a perfectly fine source of meat, as long as I’m not the one who has to wrestle the gator!
Alligator and Blackened Scallops Cajun Tacos
I’m not listing proportions here, except for the scallops and alligator. Use your instincts to determine how much of each item you want to use. I went heavy on the spiciness, since that was what I was craving, but you can scale the spiciness up or down to suit your taste.
Ingredients:
6 ounces, or about 10 small to medium sized bay scallops
6 ounces, breaded, bite-sized alligator pieces
White or yellow onion, thinly sliced
Jalapeno, thinly sliced
Green onion, diced
Shredded lettuce
Cilantro
Louisiana Hot Sauce
Tartar Sauce (homemade if you have the luxury of time!)
Flour tortillas
Dried blackening seasonings for the scallops:
Cayenne pepper
Paprika
Ghost Pepper (definitely optional!)
Garlic Powder
Thyme
Oregano
Directions:
Prepare the alligator bites by pan frying in cooking oil. Turn the alligator pieces every minute, or so until the alligator pieces are crispy. Remove the alligator pieces to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil.
Pat the raw scallops with paper towels to dry them. Toss them in the blackening seasoning until they are fully coated.
Add a scant amount of oil to a hot skillet and add scallops to the pan. Sear the scallops on each side for about one minute and remove to a paper towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil.
Blackening doesn’t mean “burning”. The blackening process requires searing at high heat and charring the spice coating.
Serve with tortillas, fresh vegetables, Louisiana hot sauce, and tartar sauce.
Camarones ala Diabla is served at many Mexican restaurants. The name of the dish translates to Shrimp of the Devil. The evocative name of the dish might entice you try it or it might make you afraid of the spicy heat that it promises to bring. I have had Camarones ala Diabla at many restaurants and I have yet to find one that truly brings the heat I want.
My tolerance for spicy food is higher than most people tolerate and I understand that restaurants cater to the general public so, when I order Camarones ala Diabla I usually tell the waiter, “muy picante, por favor”, or “mas picante”. Sadly, that usually results in more sauce, rather than a spicier sauce.
The way I see it, if you’re going to evoke the “devil” in the name of a dish you sell, you should be prepared to deliver the devilish fires of hell. Don’t hold back! I want something that sizzles and stings! ¡Yo quiero picante!
When you want something done right, sometimes you have to do it yourself!
My favorite local seafood vendor, Porter Seafood, rolled into town this weekend and I stopped by to pick up 3 pounds of fresh gulf shrimp. $8.00 per pound might seem a little pricey, but it’s worth it. Whole jumbo shrimp, fresh from the gulf, is a real treat. I nearly cried for joy when I opened the bag and saw these big beauties!
Camarones ala Diabla is not very difficult to make. All you need are fresh, jumbo shrimp and a wickedly spicy chile sauce.
My recipe includes more chile de arbol than what most recipes call for and a few whole, crispy, fried jumbo shrimp, to top the dish. Yes, the whole shrimp are meant to be eaten! Whole, fried shrimp is a delicacy and it’s something that most Americans shy away from. I won’t go into the experience of eating them whole except to say that they offer rich flavor, a wide range of textures and they look absolutely awesome! If you’re even a little curious about trying whole, fried shrimp you should do it. If the thought of eating a whole shrimp turns you off, don’t do it, but understand that you are missing a sensation that is worth overcoming the initial visual shock.
Ingredients:
8 dried guajillo chiles, stems and seeds removed
8 dried chile de arbol chiles, stems removed (for a milder version, use 3 chile de arbol)
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 tsp coarse salt
2 Tbs sesame seeds, or dried, crushed pumpkin seeds, (optional)
2 dried allspice berries, crushed (optional)
3 Tbs olive oil
1.5 pounds large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
Reserve 3 whole, raw jumbo shrimp (do not remove heads, tails or shells)
½ cup milk
½ cup flour
1 egg
2 cups cooking oil
Sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds (semillas de sésamo o semillas de calabaza) add an earthy element to the sauce and the allspice berries (bayas de pimienta) add exotic flavor. The recipe is fine without these but so much better when they are added.
Directions:
Left: Guajillo chiles: *** Right: Chile de arbol
Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles. Chile de arbol are small and it’s not easy to remove the seeds. Don’t spend too much time trying. The seeds will be removed when the sauce is strained.
Steam the chiles in a covered pan or pot, filled with water. Boil the water, add the chiles, turn off the heat, cover and wait 30 minutes.
While the chiles steam, prepare the vegetables for the sauce.
Chop the tomatoes, garlic and onion. Add these to a blender. Add the salt, sesame seeds and crushed allspice to the blender.
After the chiles have steamed, carefully remove them from the water and place them in the blender.
Blend at high speed until pureed.
Strain the sauce and discard the pulp. This should leave about two cups of smooth sauce. Reserve until needed.
Sauce, before straining
Strained pulp
Sauce, after straining
Rinse the 3 whole shrimp under clear, cool water. Set aside to air-dry on a plate.
Mix the milk, flour and egg in a bowl. This will be used to dredge the whole shrimp. Set aside for now.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 3 tablespoons olive oil. Add the peeled, raw shrimp. Sautee for a few minutes, until the shrimp turn pink. Do not cook for more than a few minutes, to avoid over cooking.
Remove the shrimp and set aside.
Add the sauce to the pan. Once the sauce is bubbling hot, return the shrimp to the pan and stir for a minute. Remove to a serving platter and keep warm.
Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups of cooking oil.
Once the oil is hot (350°), dredge the whole shrimp, one at a time, in the milk, flour and egg batter. Carefully lay the shrimp into the hot oil, one at a time. Fry the shrimp for one minute and then turn them over to fry on the other side for two minutes. Turn once more and fry for another minute.
Sorry, no pictures of this. I was having too much fun!
Carefully remove the shrimp and lay them across the top of the Camarones ala Diabla.
Serve with the usual Mexican fare…tortillas, lime wedges, rice and beans…
Well, I couldn’t resist.
I had to try a little bit of the wicked ghost pepper powder that I made
a few days ago.
It’s funny. Normally, when describing a recipe, I might say, use a tablespoon of this and a teaspoon of that but, when it comes to ghost pepper, I think much smaller.
As an example, here is the rub that I used for two large
chicken breasts, before breading and frying them.
1 ½ Tbs dried onion flake (crushed into a powder)
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbs salt
2 tsp Tajin seasoning
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ghost pepper powder
If I did the math right, the amount of ghost pepper in the
spice mix is about 13%. At first thought,
13% doesn’t sound like much but, when that 13% is ghost pepper, it’s impressive. The curious thing is, when I use a spicy rub
on chicken, prior to frying, much of the spiciness diminishes during the
cooking process. So, even though this
was a robust amount of ghost pepper, the spice rub didn’t make the chicken
unbearably spicy.
However, the sauce that I prepared for the chicken bumped up the heat, just enough to make me grin with satisfaction.
3 Tbs soy sauce
2 Tbs sriracha sauce
2 Tbs Louisiana hot sauce
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp ghost pepper powder
See the difference in the ratio of ghost powder in the rub compared to the sauce?
The total amount of sauce is about ½ cup and the amount of ghost pepper powder in the sauce is a mere ¼ teaspoon. But that’s plenty! Any more ghost pepper and the sauce would be ridiculously hot.
I like this sauce. The overriding flavor comes from the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. The heat provided by the hot sauces and ghost pepper gives it a nice, spicy kick.
A parting thought…
Tread lightly when adding spice to your sauces. You can always keep a secret stash of wicked sauce on the table. Don’t wreck a great meal for others just because you want to push your own taste buds to the extreme. Same goes with sugar or salt. Be kind. Be bold. Come back for more when you’re hungry! – The Pick
Of all the peppers that my garden produced this season, these
are by far the hottest. They are
insanely hot! It’s hard to find a way to
use them in recipes. I wouldn’t dare
throw one in a stir-fry and I wouldn’t want to take even a small bite of a
fresh one. I like to dry them and crush
them into a powder. Once they are in
powder form, I can add a small pinch to sauces or flour dredges when I want a
serious kick.
I wear latex gloves when I work with the peppers. In order to prepare the peppers for the food
dehydrator, I cut off the stems and slice the peppers into small rings.
Then I lay them on the dehydrator tray and I make sure to
allow space for the air to circulate evenly.
I put the dehydrator in the garage and ventilate by opening the garage
door. The air that comes out of the
dehydrator is nearly lethal. Seriously. I take shallow breaths when I am near the
chillis.
I set the dehydrator at 100° and let it run for 12 hours.
Once the peppers are dry and crisp, I put them in a spice
grinder and pulverize them.
I don’t use this spice grinder for anything else because no
matter how much I clean it, it still hangs on to some of the oils and residue
of the chillis. I made the mistake of
using my coffee grinder once and suffered the consequences. I cleaned the grinder several times but the
coffee beans picked up the heat from the chillis for the next several
grinds. The subsequent coffee brews were
painful.
This is a ridiculous amount of spice! It will be used sparingly over the next several years.
There comes a time in every cook’s life when they realize that they don’t have an ingredient they need for a recipe. Sometimes those moments happen in the midst of preparing a meal. Sometimes cooks just have to improvise. Sometimes cooks just have to “fake it” and force their way through life’s unexpected problems.
I’ve had some long, long days at work recently, which is why my blog posts have become less frequent. A few nights ago, I came home from work and I was craving something spicy. I wanted to make a variation of my Yin and Yang Chicken Wraps because it was quick and easy to prepare. I prepped the vegetables and chicken and just as I was getting ready to fry the chicken, I realized that I didn’t have any eggs.
Eggs are something that I always keep on hand…except this
time.
I usually fry chicken by dipping the chicken in egg and dredging it in flour. That’s Chicken 101. Of course, buttermilk could be used instead of egg… that’s the classic recipe for southern fried chicken. Buttermilk is not something I usually have on hand.
In a moment of inspiration, or desperation, I decided to use milk and Italian dressing instead of eggs.
Why Italian dressing?
Why not? I figured that if I was
going to improvise I might as well try something completely new.
The result was some very crispy and very delicious chicken. The rest of the preparation was smooth sailing and I made some extremely spicy wraps. So, satisfying!
Italian dressing contains oil, among other things, and that, combined with the milk, gave the flour something to stick to and it produced great flavor.
I ate two of the large wraps and went to bed an hour later. Big mistake! The joy I experienced while eating the spicy chicken wraps was perfectly balanced by the upset stomach I experienced 5 hours later as I drove to work the next morning. Yin and Yang, indeed!
So, don’t panic when you find yourself missing an ingredient. Trust your instincts and face adversity bravely. Improvise. Be daring!
Oh, and don’t go to sleep an hour after you eat…especially if you eat something very spicy!
Sometimes I crave very spicy food. And by sometimes, I mean about once a week. I don’t always act on the impulse but when I
do, I go all out.
I’m not the kind of person that goes around bragging about
eating super-hot-spicy peppers and I’m not the kind of guy that likes to trick
people with wickedly spicy food. I just like
the stuff. Spicy food makes me happy. It brings me peace when I need it. I tend to crave very spicy food after a stressful
day at work. I feel as though I can burn
away a bad day with blistering hot food. Sometimes I just want something very spicy for
no reason at all. Like I said, I just
like the stuff.
I call this Yin and Yang Chicken Wraps because it exists in perfect balance. Admittedly, it contains things that are not so healthy yet, it contains things that are very healthy for you. Think of it as the dichotomy of Good and Evil.
Evil: fried chicken, flour tortillas and mayonnaise.
Without evil, could we appreciate good? Without good, could we perceive evil? Oh yes, this is going to be some very
philosophical food!
Another aspect of yin and yang provided by this recipe relates
to taste sensations. Spicy and
Soothing.
Spicy: all of the peppers and hot sauces
Soothing: mango, lettuce, sour cream and cilantro.
This recipe is relatively quick and easy to make. In fact, if you pare it down to the core, it’s
really just fried chicken strips with hot sauce and some vegetables, wrapped
into a large burrito. The ingredients may
change, based upon what I have at hand.
Since I am growing chili peppers in my garden, I have lots of ways to bring
spicy heat and bold flavors.
red habaneros
Habaneros are the key in this particular recipe. If you have never tried fresh habanero, you should try them. Be careful, though. Habaneros are VERY spicy. Slice a tiny sliver from a fresh habanero and pop it into your mouth. Bite once and spit it out. You will get a big dose of heat from the spice but not so much to knock you down. You will also get to experience a most unique chili flavor. There’s no other chili pepper like the habanero. The taste is vibrant and unlike any other chili I have tasted.
If you want to try cooking with habanero but are concerned
about being blown away by the excessive heat, try adding a slice or two to a
stir fry. Stir it with other items in
the wok and pull it out after 10 or 15 seconds.
You will get the flavor and some of the heat. If you like it, add a little more but beware,
you can always add more habanero to a dish but you can never take it away. Once it imparts its heat, you can’t undo it.
Notice that I also use ghost pepper powder. Ghost pepper (Bhut jolokia) makes the habanero seem sweet and innocent, by comparison. Ghost peppers provide extremeheat and very little flavor. Any flavor a ghost pepper might provide is hidden behind screaming fire. I grow ghost peppers and dehydrate them and grind them into a powder.
A word of warning: set your dehydrator outdoors or in a ventilated, open garage. The fumes are practically lethal. And, once in powder form, the ghost pepper is as strong as mace. I’m serious. You should use latex gloves and a mask and goggles when working with dried ghost pepper. I don’t, but I should.
The way I use ghost pepper in this recipe gives some spice
to the chicken but, after frying, the spiciness dissipates remarkably. You will get a bigger kick from the habanero
and jalapeño…believe me.
If you want to make a tame version of this, skip all of the peppers
and hot sauce and use everything else.
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts
2 Tbs garlic powder
2 Tbs paprika
2 cups flour
3 Tbs cornstarch
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 mango, peeled and chopped
3 habanero chilis, thinly sliced
3 jalapeños, sliced
1 tsp ghost pepper powder (optional)
¼ onion, thinly sliced
½ cup cilantro
½ cup carrots, sliced
1 cup lettuce, julienne sliced
1 Tbs Salt
4 burrito sized flour tortillas
Ingredients for the
sauce:
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
3 Tbs sriracha hot sauce
Mix the sauce (mayonnaise, sour cream and sriracha). Set aside
Lay the chicken breasts on a cutting board and slice them scallopini-style. Hold the chicken breast in place with the
palm of your hand. Slice the breast in
half horizontally, starting at the thickest end and work your way to the
thinner end. Dust the chicken with paprika
and ghost pepper powder.
Prepare the flour dredge by whisking the flour and cornstarch in a large mixing bowl.
Dredge the chicken in the flour mixture and let the chicken
rest in the bowl for 10 or 15 minutes.
The flour will mix with the moisture on the surface of the chicken and
the chicken will become tacky, to the touch.
While the chicken rests, add the cooking oil to a skillet
and set the heat to medium.
Mix the eggs in a shallow dish.
Dip the chicken in the egg and then dredge the chicken in
the flour mixture again. Shake off
excess flour and lay the chicken in the hot oil. Do not crowd in the pan. You will probably need to fry in two batches.
Since the chicken has been sliced in half, it will cook
quickly. Turn the chicken after a few
minutes and turn again. Keep turning the
chicken every few minutes until the chicken is crisps and becomes golden brown. Remove to a paper towel lined plate. Sprinkle a little salt on the chicken. Slice the chicken into ½“ strips.
Warm the burrito sized tortillas in a microwave oven until
they are soft and pliable.
Lay a tortilla on a clean work surface. As you prepare the wrap you will want to lay
everything down horizontally. Smear some
of the sauce in the center of tortilla.
Lay the vegetables, herbs and mango down on top of the sauce. Lay some chicken on top of the vegetables.
Add hot sauce, if desired.
Wrap the tortilla by folding the sides inward, toward the
middle and roll the tortilla.
Serve with your favorite drink. Milk, if you want some relief from the heat. Beer, if you’ve had a particularly rough day.
Toothpick Tales 